Puppy Love
by Swimming Poole
Summary: Tracy finds a lost dog and promises to find her owner, hopefully before she has her puppies!
1. Chapter 1

**Puppy Love**

It was 10pm at the Turnblad residence when scratching and whimpering was heard at the door to the Hardy-Har-Hut. The only person in the house to hear it was Tracy, as she was grabbing a glass of milk to help her go to sleep. However, she could forget about sleeping now with that curious racket at the door. She grabbed a can of Ultra Clutch with the intent of self-defense just in case this was an attempt on her and/or her parents' well-being, shook it, and opened the door.

"Stay back!" she defensively exclaimed as she blindly aimed the hairspray can out in front of her. "I've got hairspray, and I'm not afraid to use it!"

She looked around and saw nobody, but the whimpering from before led her eyes down to the ground to find a surprise:

"A dog" she gasped.

It was a golden retriever. It lay at Tracy's feet, tired and desperate. The poor creature likely ran off from home for reasons untold. Tracy noticed the green collar it wore and knelt down to examine it. Maybe it would give her a clue as to where it came from.

"Emerald" she read on the collar's I.D. tag, "that must be your name, isn't it?"

The dog nodded trustingly.

"You poor thing, what are you doing all alone in the world at this time of night? Well, whatever the reason is, I'll make it my duty that you find your way back home…but it would have to wait until tomorrow when I get home from school. It's 10 o'clock at night and I don't want to wake my folks up."

"Too late" a voice said from behind.

Edna Turnblad stood at the stairway, with her head in curlers, having just awaked due to the scene downstairs. She tapped her foot, clad in bunny slippers, waiting for her daughter's explanation.

"You know about our rules against dogs in the house, not to mention the rules against waking me up in the middle of the night…"

"Mom, I wasn't planning to keep him. Emerald here was scratching at the door all lost and I was just…"

"I understand" she smiled, "I know you by now, always doing the right thing by any means necessary. But couldn't it have waited until the morning? I was having this marvelous dream about two large banana marshmallow cakes and…oh well. Let's set up a resting spot for our unexpected visitor. From the look of it, she must be more exhausted than I am."

"See that, Emerald?" Tracy told her new doggie friend. "My mom doesn't mind helping you out either…wait. Mom, how do you know Emerald is a she?"

"Woman's Intuition, I just know these things, dear. In fact, she may be in more dire need than you think!"

Tracy began to worry as Enda motioned for Emerald to come to her and began to examine the dog. She began feeling the dog's belly, nodding as if her 'Woman's Intuition' was telling her something. At that moment, Wilbur came down the stairs to see what his wife and daughter were talking about.

"Edna, Tracy, what's going on here in my Taj Mahal of joke shops? And who do we have here?"

"Oh Wilbur, good timing! Feel this dog's stomach."

Wilbur did so.

"Me oh my" he began, "either this dog is going to be a mother or she ate my recent shipment of jumping beans!"

"You mean…?" Tracy cried.

"Yup" Edna replied. "Emerald is going to have puppies. And from what I felt, it may happen at any time now!"

Tracy squealed in joy and hugged Emerald gently as Edna prepared a special bed for her.

"See you in the morning, Emerald!" Tracy called over as she went back upstairs. "After school, I'll bring you to WYZT where I'll get my friends from The Corny Collins Show to help you find your owner! It helps to know people who are on TV."

"And if you need anything" Wilbur began, "food's in the fridge, and I'll go look for a hydrant just in case you need to…"

Edna took her goofball husband by the ear and pulled him upstairs with her.

"Ok, ok. No hydrant…By the way, Edna, have you seen our pillows? I couldn't find them when I woke up."

Edna just burped in embarrassment.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day after school, Tracy took Emerald and brought her to the television station. Everyone was surprised by the presence of Tracy's new canine friend. They were even more surprised over the fact that she was going to give birth to a couple more "new friends". Amber began to act all funny.

"Atchoo!"

She had begun to sneeze and tear up uncontrollably.

"Amber…" Velma came over to her daughter, "don't do this again. Remember the last time you feigned being sick to garner attention…wait a second."

She sniffed around.

"There's a dog in the studio, isn't there? If so, get it out! My daughter is deathly allergic to dogs."

"You mean kick out an expectant mother?" Motormouth came to the dog's defense. "You, Von Tussle, are the bigger bother!"

"Yeah" Seaweed agreed, "the dog ain't gonna stay for too long. Just until we find its owner."

"Alright" Velma grumbled. "But once it leaves, I want this studio floor cleaned extra thoroughly! I'm not going to let my baby Amber sneeze to death."

"Dis is why bob add I are gad peeble…" cried a congested Amber.

Link just arrived and pecked Tracy on the cheek when Emerald, thinking he was a threat to Tracy, barked defensively and tried to tackle him.

"Whoa!" he remarked, "who's your new friend?"

"This is Emerald" Tracy explained. "I found her at the door late last night and I figured we could bring her on the show to help her find her owner."

"That's awesome!" Link smiled. "Although, not EVERYONE watches this show, you know. How are we going to reach out to those who don't watch TV?"

"Don't worry, I have a Plan B!"

"Tracy!"

It was Penny and Little Inez. They came running into the studio, carrying a large stack of hand-made flyers. They had a crayon drawing of Emerald in the middle, as well as the words "Found, lost dog named Emerald. Please contact Tracy Turnblad" with the Turnblad address and phone number at the bottom.

"How do they look?"

Tracy looked over the posters.

"Very good! Thanks, you two."

"My art teacher told me I've been really improving with drawing animals" Inez beamed, "he says my bunnies finally look like bunnies rather than cats with long ears!"

"Nice" said Tracy. "Now Penny, you go around town and do whatever you can to spread those flyers around and find the owner. Meanwhile, we'll bring Emerald on the show to help out. I'm just sure we'll find her family in no time!"

An hour later, The Corny Collins Show was officially in progress. The kids all sat to the side as Corny motioned for a spotlight to shine on him for a minute.

"Hey guys and gidgets" he addressed his viewing audience with his swoon-worthy smile, "today's show would like to do something a little different as we take a break from the dancing and point your attention to a waltz of urgent need…bring her out, Trace!"

Tracy brought Emerald out in a wagon.

"This is Emerald, this gem of a dog was discovered by our very own Tracy Turnblad last night and we're all pitching in to help her get a ticket back home. If any of you watching at home watching are the owner, come down here to WYZT and pick her up!"

Tracy looked at Emerald lying down in the wagon; it was obvious that she was nearing her due date at a break-neck pace by the distressing look on her face.

"I sure hope Penny is doing much better" Tracy thought to herself, "I don't know if Emerald will hold on much longer…"

While everyone was busy doing the show, Penny went to the streets.

"Lost dog!" she cried as she spread out the flyers. "Lost dog! Anybody lose a dog?"

She tried knocking on doors.

"Hi there" she said as on old lady opened the door, "have you lost a…"

She looked inside and saw that the old lady's couch was fully occupied by cats.

"…never mind."

Next, Penny approached people.

"Hello, little girl" she greeted a little red-haired girl with freckles, "you or anybody you know lose a dog recently?"

The little girl looked at the poster.

"No" the little girl replied, "but I would sure like a dog like that. I'd probably name her something like…Sandy, or something. Yeah!"

Penny watched as the girl ran off to greet her father, a rather well-to-do fellow with a shiny, bald head.

"For some reason" Penny thought to herself, "I can actually see her having a dog like Emerald, and I don't know why…"

Penny had gone through nearly half the town when she encountered a man with a German Shepard.

"Hello there, sir. Have you…" she began.

Suddenly, the dog went up to her. It looked at the flyer, sniffed both it and her, then began to growl for some reason.

"Easy there, big fella…" Penny nervously whimpered.

The dog barked loudly at her. Whatever the reason, Penny knew it had to do with her. Shrieking, Penny darted off and the dog started chasing her. The man, who had been mute the whole time, called out to his pet.

"Garnet, get back here!"

As Penny was screaming in fear running down the streets of Baltimore, Shelly and a few of the other girls were screaming in the studio of WYZT in response to the entire hullabaloo going on. Emerald had just gone into labor and Motormouth, Corny, and a stagehand helped deliver the puppies. In the end, she gave birth to six healthy puppies.

"Whew…" the stagehand sighed, "I knew there was a reason I went to veterinary college."

Tracy knelt down to the new mother dog and gently hugged her.

"Good job, Emerald. You're doing great. I just wish we could've found your owner before this happened…"

Suddenly, the studio doors swung open as Penny ran in, still screaming as Garnet the German Sheppard remained close on her tail. Upon Garnet's entrance, Emerald raised her head and let out a happy woof when her she took sight of the other dog. Garnet threw away the vicious look, walked up to Emerald, and the two dogs nuzzled lovingly. Nobody in the studio knew how to respond to that, not even Garnet's owner who had just entered.

"Garnet" he began, "don't tell me you've been going out with our neighbor's dog behind our backs! And Emerald…oh my goodness, what will Lucy say about this?"

"I take it 'Lucy' is Emerald's owner?" Tracy asked.

"Oh yes" the man replied. "She called me this morning all frantic, saying she couldn't find her. She told me how her dog was acting funny for some time now and didn't know what was wrong. Guess now we all know why."

Everyone watched in awe as the two dogs in love began nursing and taking care of their new family.

"Well, whaddya know!" Corny said to the camera, "Looks like we found not just the dog's owner, but her special someone and a whole new family for her to take care of. I think we can all agree that we hadn't seen anything like this since the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant last year!"

"Don't remind us…" Velma said offstage, with Amber still afflicted by her allergies.

Garnet's owner went up to Tracy.

"I assume you're the one who found my neighbor's Emerald?"

"I didn't find her, she found me" Tracy answered with a smile.

"Either way, you really are a hero. Lucy will be so happy to have her dog back. I suppose I too should give you a reward of sorts…how about $200?"

"Hmm…" Tracy thought, "maybe not that, but I'm sure I'll think of a way you could reward me."

Meanwhile…

"Say, teenage Baltimore" Corny announced, "how would you like to bring home your very own Corny Collins Show puppy?"

"What?" the cast gasped.

"Why not?" Corny replied. "They can't stay here for too long."

"They can make their homes anywhere BUT our house!" Velma declared.

Smiling insidiously, Corny whispered something in Garnet's ear. Immediately, he began barking and chasing the two sour blondes around as the cast laughed at their misfortune.

"Don't bother asking" Tracy assured Garnet's owner, "it's hard to explain…"

Agreeing, the man simply shook his head in disbelief as he watched the scene.


	3. Chapter 3

A week or two past since Tracy and her friends found Emerald's owner. One Saturday morning, Tracy and Edna were at the breakfast table when they heard a knock at the door. Seeing as her mother was too busy eating, naturally, Tracy went and answered. She opened the door to find Emerald with a brunette woman of 32 years of age. Emerald jumped and licked her friend's face.

Tracy giggled, "I'm happy to see you too, Emerald!"

"You must be the Tracy who found my dog" said the women. "I'm Lucy. My neighbor Patrick told me how you took my dear Emerald in when she ran away carrying her mate's puppies. I must admit, I was surprised that he and I were technically grandparents now when I heard the news!"

She and Tracy laughed together in response to that.

"Anyway" she continued, "it really was kind of you to do that. And I'm more impressed that you even turned down the money Patrick offered you."

"I was just happy to see Emerald happy" Tracy replied with a smile.

"However, Emerald was grooming one of her pups the other day and she seemed to have an idea…"

With that, Lucy motioned for Tracy to look down. There she saw one of Emerald's puppies. It was a slightly fluffy little mixed breed, brown fur with some light blonde streaks with eyes that told her that she loved her just as much as Emerald did. Seeing this, Tracy bent down to Emerald's eye level.

"Emerald" Tracy whispered, "You trying to tell me I should have one of your puppies?"

The dog happily nodded with wagging tongue.

"Oh my gosh!" Tracy cried. "Though, I'm not entirely sure. We kinda have a rule against pets…"

"Rule against what?" Edna asked, coming by and still chewing on a slice of bacon.

"Mother" said Tracy, "Emerald would like us to bring one of her puppies into our family."

"Aww, that was nice of you…" Edna fawned, "but we do, indeed, have a no-pets rule in the…"

But before she could continue, she looked at how deeply the little animal and her mother were looking at Tracy. It was obvious that Emerald and her new family were in her daughter's debt after she selflessly took her in and helped her get back home.

"Oh, what the hey! Tracy, we'll make an exception. But remember, you have to walk it, feed it, and brush its fur…"

"Oh, I know" Tracy said. "I'll take care of this little one as if she were my own baby!"

"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle, my little Tracy's becoming more like me every day!" joked Edna. "…except she doesn't mind moving around a lot."

With everything settled, Tracy hugged her new little pet as Lucy and Emerald bid their farewells to their new friends, the Turnblads.

"I think I'll call her…Marissa" Tracy declared as she started brushing her puppy's fur.

Edna squinted.

"Funny, she looks more like a Nikki."

"Either way" Tracy gazed into the little dog's eyes, "I can tell we were made for each other. After all, her mom and I are friends after all!"

THE END


End file.
